South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Writing my wrongs on local teams
I wrote this last September: ”With so many new and young faces, the Dolphins suffered more than most from the abbreviated offseason due the pandemic. The defense will keep them in games. But the record won’t be the jump many hope. I see 7-9.”
They went 10-6.
With National Everything You Think Is Wrong Day coming up, a day promoted for people to “realize they are not always right,” it’s time to come clean on what I’ve been wrong about.
I thought the Florida Panthers would win their first playoff series since 1996. I thought the Miami Hurricanes would go 10-2 and show the Manny Diaz era was developing nicely.
I led the league in wrong — any league. In my meager defense, who didn’t pick the Marlins last in the National League East in 2020?
“Everyone picked us last,” manager Don Mattingly said.
They finished second. They won a playoff series.
And the Heat against the Milwaukee Bucks last playoffs?
I wrote: ”Too much Giannis [Antetokounmpo]. Too much greatness. The NBA is a simple game to predict — who’s got the best player on the court? Maybe the best two of the top three players? Milwaukee has the best player in the game right now, and
that means Milwaukee wins this series in six games.”
The Heat won in five games. They advanced to the NBA Finals.
It goes with the job, right? It’s part of sports too. Sometimes you’re wrong. I won’t crow about being right while not confessing my wrongs. There’s no shame in being wrong. Sports is a conversation, a debate. You pick your battles.
Tua Tagovailoa or Justin Herbert? I shrugged at that one.
“It’s the job of Dolphins general manager Chris Grier to fall in love with one of them,” I wrote. But that didn’t stop me from missing completely on the biggest Dolphins draft miss of all time. Here’s what I wrote after the 2013 draft:
”How about a big round of applause for Jeff Ireland?
”No?
”Come on, folks, this is exactly the kind of first-round surprise the Dolphins haven’t sprung in years and precisely what you wanted. You wanted bold? Trading up from 12th to the third pick overall to take Dion Jordan was …”
I’m also the guy who thought Ryan Tannehill would be good in his second season. I thought, going back further, it was a waste of $10 million for the Marlins to sign Pudge Rodriguez. I loudly thought, going way back, it was time for Don Shula to retire (add loud to wrong and you push the button of regret).
There’s no need to sift through the years, though. There’s enough from this past year to fill my card for this national day meant to show you aren’t always right.
Kyle Van Noy?
”He’ll be Mr. Versatile on this defense for the next few years,” I wrote.
He was released this week.
The Super Bowl picks?
”Seattle vs. Baltimore in the Super Bowl,” I wrote.
It was Tampa Bay vs. Kansas City. And I double-down on wrong by picking Kansas City to beat Tampa Bay. Patrick Mahomes was 25 and Tom Brady was 43.
”You don’t bet the old star against the young star in sports,” I wrote.
Hey, being wrong happens. It’s part of the job. It’s startling that people pay such close attention to game predictions, but they do. Dolphins great Dan Marino once berated me, “Are you ever going to pick us to win?” They were 6-10 that year. What was I to do?
Other wrongs weren’t quite my fault too. Like a recent column on the family of former Dolphins great Jake Scott selling his memorabilia after his death, as he wanted. His brother-in-law, Randy Fabal, said Jake sold his boat in Hawaii to the drummer of the Grateful Dead. Jake told him that.
When the column appeared, an email arrived: “You guys got your story wrong. Jake Scott sold his charter boat on Kauai to Mike Fleiss, the creator of “The Bachelor,” not the Grateful Dead drummer. I know because I was his captain.”
So it goes. So it will still go too. I look at the National League East this season and see a great Atlanta team, the reloaded Philadelphia and the New York Mets … and I’m picking the Marlins last again. Some lessons, you see, just aren’t learned.